Drug addict finds recovery and a career as a barber

Editor’s Note: Part 2 of a 2-part story on Sal Giannone’s journey to recovery from addiction.

NORRISTOWN >> Once he got sober, Sal Giannone started working dead-end jobs. Ed Lopez, a stylist at Bubbles at the King of Prussia Mall, who gave him clothes and food on the street, brought Giannone on board as an assistant. He encouraged Giannone to go to his grandfather, a barber for 50 years, to teach him.

“This is in your blood, you can do this,” Lopez told him.

Sal Giannone, young Sal’s grandfather, was born in Montella, Italy, where he trained to be barber. He immigrated to America with one dollar and began working in factories. Eventually, Gus Butera hired him to work at his shop in Conshohocken, and the two formed a friendship.

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The younger Giannone may not have been scared of a gun pointed to his chest or sleeping outside in the frigid temperatures, but he was scared to approach his grandfather about the idea after letting them down so many times. Lopez drove him to his grandfather’s home and spoke on behalf of Giannone, lauding his hard work and desire to be a barber.

“Make sure he is at the shop tomorrow morning, and he is going to spend the whole day sweeping hair,” instructed the elder Giannone.

Giannone swept hair for months, only cutting the hair of friends and relatives after hours. His grandfather showed him proper techniques, reminding him to be better, be faster.

“I can do five haircuts in an hour no problem and they are all quality. He molded me into his likeness and taught majority of what I know,” said Giannone of his grandfather’s training. “The other barbers I worked with have all left unique techniques I use. I pick up a little from everybody.”

“He knew that he was not only improving his life, he would be able to improve other lives as well. I never really helped him because he did it all by himself,” said Lopez.

On the December night before grandfather Giannone died, he admitted if he could go back 50 years he would have opened his own shop.

“Not that I didn’t do well. I would have done it for myself. You should do it for yourself. You should see if you could open your own shop,” he told his grandson.

“I’m not ready yet. One day,” Gianone said.

He told his grandfather he loved him, then left. The next morning he received a phone call that his grandfather had a massive heart attack.

Four years later Giannone knew the time was right to follow the advice.

“Hey man, you got a quarter? Two quarters?” Giannone says, repeating his once daily plea. He admits to using his panhandling ability to become a better business owner. It spurred him to “use the hustle to get what he wanted.” He stood out in front of the same places he begged for change and handed out his business cards.

With only a small, now repaid loan from a friend, Giannone used $18,000 of his own money to open the Sal’s Barbershop on Halloween 2015.

His renovation of the space was intentional, from the icons of Philadelphia sports on the wallpaper to the refurbished Theo A. Koch barber chairs. Hip with a dash of old school. Giannone’s bought his grandfather’s chair from Gus Butera’s and the other three chairs have Montgomery County origins.

“They are made right and still surviving today,” he says of the vintage chairs.

The wallpaper is one of the things Giannone says makes the place. Why would they not be on the wall of his shop after he cried himself to sleep after Joe Carter’s home run and wept a much different type of tears 15 years later when Brad Lidge fell to his knees.

“If you are Philly sports fan and you see all your favorite sports heroes on the wall, you feel at home. I remember watching those games or the player and the heart he had. I have nothing but champions on those walls,” says Giannone, wearing a Flyers hat and sweatpants. “I want people to leave talk about where they were. Not just a place people got a great haircut.”

On the first day of business, Giannone did 25 haircuts by himself. Within a year, the shop won various awards for best in the county with the community’s strong word of mouth. Currently, the shop serves between 80 to 100 customers per day.

“Can I get you a soda? A beer,” barber Danny Torres asks a customer.

The customer looks a little surprised and opts for a soda. A table in the back of the shop is filled with complimentary candy, chips, and peanuts. There is music playing, a game on the flatscreen, or barbershop banter during each trip. It’s part of the experience Giannone creates to make customers for life. Prices start at $15 for a haircut to $20 for “The VIP Treatment” which falls in line with Giannone’s plan to have an appeal across income brackets. He wants each guest to be treated like a king. Using his artistic background, Giannone is skilled at carving logos of teams into heads. He attracts the kid crowd who sees a cool haircut and want to follow suit.

“It’s not about if the business makes money, it’s about customer retention. If they are happy you are going to make money. Customer retention is the biggest deal in business. You want to make them feel so good to come back to you that they tell other people to come to you.”

Family Business

The sign in front of the shop in Plymouth Meeting is classic in it’s simplicity: “Sal’s Barbershop.” Giannone’s name may be on the marquee and the ownership papers, but he doesn’t consider the name his. It’s a tribute. It’s a promise kept. It may be coming to a your town soon.

“I consider it my grandfather’s name,” Giannone says. “When I first put the sign up I never once thought, ‘Hey, that’s my sign.’ It’s one thing to realize your own dreams. But to realize somebody else’s dream that wants the best for you, to finish work that hasn’t been done, to complete the task.”

Giannone voice begins to crack.

“This is just the beginning. There are going to be a lot of those signs up in the next decade.”

Giannone has enough barbers for another shop and is in the process of scouting locations for a second shop for a possible end of spring opening.

Giannone’s doesn’t refer to his staff as employees, and they don’t speak of him as a boss. The respect is obvious. They listen intently when he speaks and spring to action when he makes a request. “Family” is the word used most to describe the dynamic.

Some of the employees have similar redemption stories, Giannone does not coax them into sharing. They know their boss’s story. He knows theirs. It’s about what they are doing now.

“My guys are more like family,” Giannone said. “They come to me as friend when something is going on in their lives and we deal with it as a family. Everything doesn’t have to be so black and white. Sometimes it’s more. There are feelings and responsibilities involved and you have to be compassionate but you can’t be a pushover. It’s a fine line.”

Danny Torres was working at another barbershop and turned Gianone down initially, but reconsidered.

“He’s laid back. He’s not like a boss. He’s more of a friend. It’s a job but it’s not a job. It’s lot more fun,” said Torres.

“Sal is a great dude,” said Eric Warriner, who was in the process of giving a guest the hot towel treatment. “He’s like a brother. We are all like brothers here. It’s not like at any other barbershop I’ve worked for. We are all like family. There’s no drama. It’s like home. You get a good vibe.”

Anthony Candelerio, 22, worked at Burger King before becoming Giannone’s apprentice.

“Sal is a great teacher. He blessed me with the opportunity to do this. He attracts success,” Candelerio said.

“My grandfather helped me realize my potential and that’s what I’m trying to do with Anthony. He’s a quick learner,” said Giannone, noting that his apprentice spent his first few months sweeping hair and restocking drinks.

New Home

Sal Giannone’s home looks familiar. A child’s swing on the porch. A dog peering from the front window.

Ten years and 15 days of sobriety and counting, things have changed, not just from addict to business owner.

He is a father of two daughters, Lilliana Rose (3 and a half), and a 2-month old, Carmela-Grace.

He now shakes the hands of the officers who put him in jail, and thanks them, because he believes he might not have made it to the next day without them.

His mother, 12 years sober, is a big part of his life. In November 2011 Rinaldo had a fatal heart attack in front of Joey, Sal’s 13-year-old brother. Joey moved in with Sal and his wife, Kristen, and is currently a senior at Norristown Area High School, captain and MVP of the football team, and October student of the month, and he calls his brother his role model. He plans to attend college for business.

“He didn’t make excuses for himself. He doesn’t do drugs and doesn’t drink because he knows that’s not going to lead him down the path he wants to be on,” said Gianone, who also maintains a close relationship with his two other brothers, Ronnie and Carmen.

In 2018, the Giannone brothers will award a $100 scholarship to one senior from four area schools who comes from a nontraditional family or has a deceased parent.

On Dec. 1, Sal posted a Pixgram on Facebook with pictures detailing his journey. To date it has over 17,000 views.

“There was a lot of bad stuff that went on behind the scenes in Norristown,” Giannone said. “It’s cleaned up a lot. It’s a lot better than it was and I give credit to the officers of Norristown, the recovery program and drug court. The thing that bothers me the most is there are still people out there going through the same thing I did. It’s never to late to change your stars.”